Seeking Silicon Valley

Under the theme Seeking Silicon Valley, the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial will feature work by a diverse group of local, national, and international contemporary artists whose work will transform Silicon Valley into an epicenter for innovative art production and public experience.

Renowned globally as a hub of entrepreneurship and innovation, Silicon Valley is notoriously difficult to experience. More than a specific location it is a network of freeways, technologies, companies, and relationships connected in a complex physical and virtual web. Modeling this networked nature, the hub of the Biennial is the ZERO1 Garage located at 439 S. 1st Street in downtown San Jose’s SoFA District with a series of nodes, networks, and access points connecting Silicon Valley and beyond—a network of curators from different countries bringing a global perspective to the Biennial exhibition, a network of emerging artists sharing and presenting work during the opening weekend, as well as a series of exhibitions, programs, pop-up installations and performances being presented by ZERO1 and a growing list of partnering arts institutions that will serve as Biennial access points throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.

Also titled Seeking Silicon Valley, the 2012 Biennial exhibition will examine how artists have engaged with the groundbreaking technology that has come to define Silicon Valley—from their role in research institutions to their expertise at “hacking” existing technology platforms to create new forms of expression. The exhibition, which will remain on display from September 12 through mid-December 2012, will be the network hub for all Biennial programming. Reflecting the networked nature of Silicon Valley, the exhibition structure will experiment with a networked model of collaborative curation that we hope will be continued in future biennials. The curatorial team includes: Lead Curator: Jaime Austin (ZERO1’s Curator and Director of Programs) Exhibition Co-Curators: Dooeun Choi (Creative Director, Nabi Center, South Korea) Gisela Domschke (Curator and artist, Brazil) Michelle Kasprzak (Curator, v2_Institute for the Unstable Media and curating.info, the Netherlands) and Regina Moeller (Artist, Germany).